Pirates, Patriots, and Princesses: The Art of Howard Pyle (Dover Books on Fine Art)

By Jeff A. Menges and Howard Pyle

Book Overview

A giant in the field of illustration and children's books, Howard Pyle (1853-1911) published some 3,300 illustrations during his thirty-five-year career. He also wrote many of the stories he illustrated and, as a teacher, shared his artistic views and skills with such students as Maxfield Parrish and N. C. Wyeth, who, along with many others, went on to become celebrated artists in their own right.) This volume contains more than sixty of Pyle's best works. Characterized by an imaginative and colorful realism, his art dramatized themes with universal appeal: the romantic nature of medieval chivalry, the ruthlessness of pirate greed, and the pride of embattled soldiers. Selected from beloved classics and hidden gems and amassed over years of research by an expert in the field, these richly colored drawings will delight a wide audience of art lovers and book collectors.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486448320
• ISBN13: 9780486448329
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.4" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

good value for the price

This is a nice little colection of Pyle's work. Contrary to another review, every page except one has only a single image. As far as black and white reproducutions, most of those are pen drawings or grisailles which, of course, are supposed to be black and white. (the grisaille actually IS printed in color.) Among the 67 plates there is one pen drawing and one grisaille. There is also one very small painting that was reproduced in black and white as a reference. (This is also the lone page that has 2 images.) A few of these images, including the cover, look like they were originally grisailles over which a transparent layer of color has been added. These are, in my opinion, the weakest images - I think there were much better choices for the cover. There are a few problems with the book. First, it has very generous margins. Usually about an inch to 2 inches on all sides, so there is a fair amount of white space. This is for the portait format works. The landscape formats suffer much more because dover, like alot of publishers, has refused to print them in such a way that their natural dimensions require, instead squeezing them into the vertical portrait format. There are only 8 landscapes though. Secondly, the reproduction quality is economy, as you would expect from a book of this price. Still, I think it is a good value if you like Pyle, as it is hard to find alot of this work elsewhere. If you want better reproductions, I recommend Wondrous Strange the Wyeth Tradition. It has 30 very nice full page reproductions of Pyle's work including a 2 page spread of marooned. Also includes paintings from nc, andrew, and jamie wyeth.

Perfect Artwork

This book brings to you the blend of the fantasy life of its title: Pirates, Patriots and Princesses with the outstanding artwork of the master Howard Pyle. He brings to you such action and grace with great brush strokes that come alive - even after printing into a book! Can't get much better than this!